Does Anyone Make/Sell FT Truck Journal Boxes?

CLW had them, but you would have to cut the bearing away from the cover.  I suspect P&D Hobbies has the same thing.  Might be easier to make your own from plastic?  Adams made sand castings with square journal covers, but they were crude by today's standards.

Thanks Bob.  I guess that's a simple box with a lid so they could open them up and stuff oily waste material/packing inside?

I need to get a larger, clearer photo before I make them.

Thanks Dave, I'll see if I can find them.

Here's a photo I found online of the journal box:

I might be able to make them so they fit over the existing cast-on roller bearing unit.  It's worth a shot!

As luck would have it, I have a set of truck sideframes off an old MTH RailKing F3 that look exactly like those on the GP9 #1912.  The overall sideframes don't hold up against the Lionel frames plus they're just a bit too short, but the square journal boxes look good and I might be able to make a casting of them.

No.  They are roller bearings.

Thanks Tom!

These boxes will probably be the last bit of detail I add to the engine, so I can take my time and figure out how to approach this.  I'm still thinking making them hollow so they slip over/onto the existing sideframes.

Looks good Dave.

When you filed the old cover off did you go thru to the hole for the axle?

Where is the separation line between the old sideframe and the new box?  Is that plate with the 2 bolt heads showing part of the new box?

Maybe a bit of technical information about those "big Hyatt Journal boxes" is in order here.

1) Those early Hyatt roller bearing journal boxes are the model J1, and came in two versions; the "normal or plain" version pictured above. The "optional" version was the J1 Combination Box, which was even larger, and square, with a bolted-on front cover plate which included a small round bolted-on cover for the mechanical speed recorder drive. Usually only one "J1 Combination Box" was mounted on a locomotive for the speed recorder drive.

2) The reason the J1 roller bearing journal boxes were so large was, they included various stacks of shim plates for setting/maintaining the lateral end play of each axle within the truck frame.

3) Later, and more modern Hyatt roller bearing journal boxes were smaller and included a special hard rubber spacer and bronze thrust bearing device inside the front cover plate. Those Hyatt boxes were called the JMRA Boxes, and were used right up to and through the 60 series of EMD diesel locomotives.

4) The most recent type of roller bearing journals are now the Timken Cartridge types, as seen on both GE and EMD more modern units. Even older units are being up-graded to the cartridge type of roller bearings.   

Thanks guys!  Jack, great historical data to put away for future reference.

I wouldn't have even noticed the difference in the boxes if Warren Calloway hadn't sent me a photo of the engine I'm trying to model (#1912), it's a closer photo of the engine but in the Jolly Green Giant paint scheme.